German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel and his Russian counterpart, Andrei Kozyrev, officially opened Germany's new Moscow embassy Tuesday, bringing to an end eight years of labor on the 35, 000-square-meter compound.


Addressing his Russian hosts, Kinkel called the new facility "a great symbol of relations between our two countries", and proof that Germany had a long-term interest in Russia.


"Russians and Germans used to be enemies, but they are also historically linked in economic and cultural ways", he said, stressing the need for bilateral cooperation in formulating rules for the evolving markets of the former Soviet Union.


Kinkel is on his first official visit to Moscow as the German foreign minister. In addition to two scheduled meetings with Kozyrev, he is also expected to meet with Boris Yeltsin during his two-day stay, as well as with the speaker of the Russian parliament, Ruslan Khasbulatov.


Kozyrev, for his part, echoed Kinkel's remarks, calling the occasion beginning of new and open relations between Russia and Germany in the post-communist world.


"There is a myth that the Russian


government does not control the situation", he said. "But it is enough to look around you to see how untrue that is".


The enclosed brick compound - which cost 177 million marks and boasts 120 apartments, a swimming pool, lecture halls and two underground garages - was built by the German construction firm, Hochtief, and Russian subcontractors.


With 174, 000 cubic meters of space, the new compound will now be home to most of Germany's Moscow embassy staff members and their families.


The German ambassador, Klaus Blech, said that the construction project was a good example of what international cooperation was capable of producing.


"There were many difficulties working with two nations involved - "different mentalities, different languages, different terms. But the result is a grand example of modern architecture at its finest", Blech said.


Before leaving, Kinkel reiterated Germany's commitment to Russia, saying that over half of all aid to the Commonwealth of Independent States came from Germany.


"We have before us the possibility of building the future Europe, and Russia is an important part of that future", he said.